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Wednesday, August 29, 2007

Rider Prophet here with all the news that is news across the Rider nation.

Well the annual Labour Day Classic is less than 4 days away and Sunday can't come fast enough. After having to endure close to 2 weeks of no news, I can finally talk Rider football again! Seriously, I was so deprived of sporting news this past week that I caught myself watching tennis, hoping something exciting would happen that I could write about in my blog (let's just say I quickly found out why I'm the Rider Prophet and not the Wimbledon Prophet). But all is well in the world again as the Riders began practicing yesterday for Sunday's clash with the Bombers.

For the first time ever, the Labour Day Classic will feature the best team in the west vs. the best team in the east. This is an amazing bit of trivia until you consider that Winnipeg has only been in the east for 15 of the 40 Labour Day Classics as well as the fact that Winnipeg was never really good enough to be in 1st place to begin with. Nonetheless, it should be a great game as the CFL's top defense goes head to head with the CFL's best offense.

While the bye week made fans like me bored to tears it did help on the injury front for the Riders. We should see a few familiar faces back on the field come Sunday. The more I think about our injuries the more amazing it is that we are the best team in the CFL. Consider that we've been without: the best O-lineman in the CFL (1 game), the best DB in the league (5 games) another starting DB (2 games) a starting DT and DE (1 and 8 games respectively) and our back-up D-lineman (2 games). That's like climbing a mountain with 1 arm, a broken leg, scurvy and indigestion.

Speaking of familiar faces, it has been confirmed Corey Holmes will make his Riders re-debut as our kick returner. In Austin's own words "They would have run me out of town if I didn't". The energy at Mosaic will be off the charts: a sold-out crowd, cheering on a 1st place team, with Holmes returning the kick. If Doug Berry has any brains he will not let Holmes get within 40 yds of the opening kickoff.

Here are a couple Bomber jokes in the spirit of Labour Day:

Q: What do you call a Bomber fan with half a brain?A: Gifted

Q: What do you get when you put 12 Bomber cheerleaders in one room?A: A full set of teeth

I'd like to end today's post by clearing up some common misconceptions about people from Winnipeg. I feel this is particularly appropriate this week, since "mis-conception" is probably a pretty accurate explanation for why Winnipegers are like they are in the first place.

1) The average Winnipeg resident has 6.7 teeth.FALSE: The average number of teeth clinging to the gums of your average Winnipeg resident is, in fact, unknown. While the general consensus is that it is well below the full set of 32 you would expect to find, researchers are yet to locate a Winnipeg dentist that has been able to devise a method of holding a patient's mouth open while still keeping the necessary number of fingers available to count past five. Further complicating the problem is that dentists capable of this feat (presumably those not native to the Manitoba capital) refuse to come within ten feet of a Winnipeger's mouth due to olfactory concerns.

2) The average Winnipeg resident does not know the meaning of the word 'olfactory'.FALSE: A recent University of Manitoba survey indicated that 8 out of 10 Winnipeg residents were familiar with the term 'olfactory'. The same study shows a roughly 50/50 split as to whether the city benefited or suffered as a result of shutting it down to make room for the new factory.

3) 95% of Winnipeg males ages 13-19 have, at one time or another, found themselves uncontrollably attracted to their cousin.FALSE: This statistic is largely outdated. While it may once have been true, research suggests that it has not held true for well over a generation. It seems that as a result of a shockingly high level of inter-family relationships, the cousins that today's Winnipeg youth would have historically lusted after are now, technically speaking, their sisters. It's a semantics thing.

That's it for now. This is the Rider Prophet wishing you a good Labour Day Weekend (unless you're from Winnipeg, in which case kindly spend all your money and leave town immediately).

Monday, August 27, 2007

Well it was a bye week for the West so there's not too much to talk about this week. Winnipeg held on to 1st place in the east with a win over the Argos. Toronto was ahead with less than 2 minutes left in the game but apparently neither Rich Stubler or his highly regarded defense had ever heard of Milt Stegall, who made 2 key receptions to move the Bombers into FG range. I guess they thought that with the game on the line the Bombers were going to lean heavily on O'Neil Wilson.

Hamilton continued its losing ways as they fell to Montreal in the only other game this week. The highlight for me was when Jason Maas was trying to call an audible and his centre inadvertently snapped the ball over Maas' head. That pretty much sums up how things have been going for the Ti-cats.

I figured with the lack of Rider news, I'd take this opportunity to respond to some of the fan mail I received over the last few days.___________________________________________________________________

johnny@yahoo.com writes...

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Thanks for the email Johnny, it's always nice to receive fan mail from Manitoba (You're superior grammatical skills gave it away). While the Rider Prophet has no plans to travel anytime soon, I do appreciate a good bargain and will keep this site in mind if I ever decide to go to Italy.

_______________________________________________________________

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Dear Mr. Paul,$950,000!? You like my blog that much? Seriously though this sounds about as legit an operation as the guys I saw selling discount shoes out of a Uhaul van on North Broad. Though I'm glad to have you as a faithful reader of my blog, I'm not quite prepared to do business transactions with you. Nothing personal though.______________________________________________________________

Interesting... while I'm sure that the prices you offer are a discount, I have found a place where I can get an abundance of that type of material for free...It's called the internet!

PS - How do you think the Riders will do in the second half of the season?_______________________________________________________________

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Thanks for the information however I'm not in the market for those products. But I will pass this onto to someone who would be definitely be interested… the Winnipeg Blue Bombers since “getting up” will be among their greatest challenges on Sunday afternoon. _____________________________________________________________

Thursday, August 23, 2007

Although I love watching CFL football, I'm finding it a little hard to get excited about this week’s action. This week's games boast about as much hype as the Olivia Newton-John concert in October (Didn't know she was coming to Regina? My point exactly). Neither of this week's games has any bearing on the Riders or the West in general but watching a CFL game still beats all that other garbage that currently pollutes the airwaves.

The week kicks off Friday in Winnipeg as the slumping Argos face the Bombers. All signs point to a Bomber win: they're at home, their offense features the #3 QB, the #2 RB and 2 of the top 5 receivers in the CFL, and they finally have a healthy secondary. By contrast, the Argos are like the patchwork quilt of the CFL. Their offense features a number of cast-offs including Mitchell (Edmonton), Edwards (Montreal), Dorsey (Saskatchewan, Winnipeg) and Butler (Saskatchewan, Hamilton). I can summarize the reasons I think the Bombers will win with one stat. Michael Bishop still leads the Argos in passing yards despite having played 1 complete game this season and appearing in only 3.

We then move on to Montreal where the Ti-cats will square off with the Alouettes. Although the Ti-cats are showing signs of improvement, I don't think they are quite there yet. It's kinda like Canada's soccer team moving up from 80th to 56th in the world rankings, sure it's a big improvement for Canada but it doesn't mean we're going to be beating the Italians anytime soon. Montreal always does well at home and after watching their last game it's obvious that Cavillo has started ignoring Bellefeuille's play calling, which means that the Als offense is once again dangerous. How is it obvious that Cavillo is now calling the plays you ask? Cahoon had 9 catches and 2 TDs where as Thurmon only had 2 catches. When asked to comment Marcel said that although he was happy that the Als won their last game, he was planning on sitting down and having a serious talk with Cavillo. The conversation probably went something like this:

"Listen Anthony, I know it worked last week, but I'd be lying if I said that we didn't get really lucky. Teams are going with small defensive backs, so we need to throw to a big receiver like Thurmon - it's called playing the odds! And besides that, you've been throwing to Cahoon for years; teams are starting to expect it! You have to keep them guessing. It's like when I was in Saskatchewan in 2004. We won the semi-final because of Kenton Keith. The next week, BC expected us to give Kenton the ball. But did we? No way! And look how well that turned out!"

Here's an interesting fact, assuming he stays healthy, Hamilton's newest receiver Jason Armstead will lead the league in 1 category... Regular season games played. He should finish with 19 which is quite impressive in a league with an 18 game schedule. Fortunately the lack of anything resembling a playoff game will give Armstead plenty of time to rest up once it's all said and done.

Well that's the way I saw the CFL this week. If you're interested in new forms of advertising, have I got a deal for you. For $5, the Rider Prophet will mention your business or event in this blog. For $10 I'll say something positive about it!

Wednesday, August 22, 2007

Before I get to what's going on in the CFL, I would like to start off by mentioning that in a recent article, Leader Post writer Tim Switzer commented that the Rider Prophet is his favourite Roughrider blogger on in the internet. Thanks Tim, always appreciate good feedback.

Now on to the CFL. There was so much to talk about this week that I didn't get to it all on Monday (and if you don't believe that then I was just lazy on Monday and only started feeling ambitious again today).

We'll start off in BC, where it seems Wally Buono just can get a break. Well actually he's getting more breaks than he can handle. Just when it looked like Buck Pierce was back in his groove and the Lions' hopes were rising... It all came crashing down... again. When Pierce went down in the Calgary game, we were left wondering what he hurt this time. Was it his turf toe, his tender ribs, his sore wrist, his duodenum, achy breaky pelvis, gas? Turns out it was none of those and Buck added another injury to his already long list of ailments by separating the shoulder on his throwing arm. This leaves Buono with only Jarious Jackson yet again. Ol’ Squinty can't be happy with that and I'm sure the second Buck went down, he started talking to Dickenson. I bet the conversation went something like this:

Wally: So you'll be good to go in 2 weeks?DD: Umm... Wally my brains are scrambled. One bad hit and I could die.Wally: I don't care just get the ball downfield!

Wally may be an amazing coach but you can sure tell what he values more: a win or the health of his players. Sources say that Pinball may not be the only guy trying to get a hold of Nealon Greene.

On to Toronto where the Argonauts have signed former Alouette running back Robert Edwards. I was surprised that the Argos picked Edwards up. Not because he's a bad player just because the Argos seem to prefer signing people that have been cut by 2 teams as opposed to just 1.

Finally back here in Saskatchewan, Corey Holmes arrived in Regina last night around 11pm. Over 100 fans turned out to welcome him. The fan support really touched Corey who is happier than Mr. Rogers on Prozac to be back in Queen City.

A passerby who wasn't a big Rider fan commented that he wasn't aware that Carlton from Fresh Prince was coming to town but was impressed to see such a big crowd gather to greet him nonetheless.

Check back tomorrow for my thoughts on this week's 2 games in the East.

Monday, August 20, 2007

Good Day fellow Rider Fans. Rider Prophet here with my thoughts on what has been a crazy week for the Rider Nation. There's so much to talk about. I don't even know where to start. I'm completely overwhelmed. I feel like an attractive cousin at a Winnipeg family reunion.

The Riders endured rain, lightning, a power outage and a 1 hour delay and came up with a huge come from behind victory over the Eskimos to extend our winning streak to 4. Not bad for a team that was missing 2 D-lineman, 2 DBs and the league's best O-lineman. The game was close the whole way but a big catch and run by Dominguez followed by a 2 yard run from Kerry Joseph for the major turned out to be the difference.

The truly amazing thing though was the fans. About 16,000 toughed out the storm to see the final 13 minutes of the game and when the game was finally restarted the crowd was louder than any sell-out game I've been to! At the end of the game Kitwana Jones was partying in the stands with the fans and Eric Tillman was waving a Rider flag on the sidelines, completely drenched, just like the fans. It was a moment you will always remember. After the game, star receiver Matt Dominguez called the Rider fans a bunch of crazy yahoos and that's about bang on. Some fans never even left their seats and most people seemed more annoyed at the lack of alcohol sales during the delay than they were with the rain or the lack of power.

The win leaves us with the CFL's best record at 6-2. The last time the Riders started 6-2 the Toronto Blue Jays had just been created, movie goers got their first glimpse of a boxer named Rocky Balboa and ABBA's Dancing Queen ruled the airwaves. That's right, we are off to our best start since 1976 and spirits are flying higher than the CBC staffer that made the decision to not broadcast the 4th quarter must have been.

And just when you thought the weekend couldn't get any better... along comes Eric Tillman to prove you wrong. Not being satisfied with nabbing an O-lineman, WR, Punter and the majority of the secondary from Hamilton, ET decided he also wanted their kick returner and a young Canadian receiver. That's right ladies and gentlemen COREY HOLMES is coming home!! Kick returner, running-back, slot-back, humanitarian... Corey is the complete package. Corey Holmes in Hamilton looked about as right as Bob Poley playing for the Stampeders, Bobby Jurasin suiting up for the Toronto Argonauts, or Roell Preston on a football field, but fortunately Corey is now headed back to a team that might actually utilize him correctly.

A part of me does feel for Jason Armstead though. It certainly can't be easy to go from being a member of the CFL's best team to being a lowly Ti-Cat. He's a nice guy and quality player and I for one wish him well. The one redeeming thing here is that given Jason's experience playing for the Renegades at least he's used to disappointment.

Friday, August 17, 2007

I have been posting my articles on www.yardbarker.com. Apparently my last post angered an Eskimo fan. Here's what they wrote and my repsonse._____Your comments are ABSURD. AJ Gass doesn't "pick and choose" the game that he sits out, he is simply going through the league's "legal process" - the same process, which you obvoiusly didn't know, that Bobby SIngh went through (for hitting a ref with a helmet) and his suspension still pending after TWO YEARS! So unless you want to take a run at Bobby Singh too, get off AJ Gass' case. Also, maybe you should educate yourself on the facts before making such ridiculous comments. First of all, Gass appealed the firt time because the league took too long to decide on the suspension (two days into practice) and Gass had already taken the reps up until then, clearly because the team was NOT expected it (the suspension). Second, Gass has obviously been persuaded by his coaches, management and the CFLPA to go to arbitration because they believe that he has a legitmate case - considering the most recent helmet throwing incident (in which the helmet was not thrown at another player or a ref) was Dave Dickenson and he didn't get suspended. If you want to talk about ridiculous, you should talk about the fact that AJ Gass threw a helmet into an empty field AFTER being "groped" by Pilon, blasted from behind by Pilon, and then grabbed by Comisky to fight. Up until Comisky grabbed him, Gass had WALKED away from Pilon's dirty actions and cheap shots...he was staying out of it. And, if you look at the footage, you will see that Comisky's helmet is not on very secure and he had his hands on Gass' too. I repeat - Pilon and Comisky started it, not Gass. And, furthermore, what Pilon did was FAR worse than what Gass did. And, speaking of FAR worse - what Dwight Anderson and Diamond Ferrs did to Jamie Stoddard and Charles Roberts (respectively) by BODY-SLAMMING them to the ground was a LOT worse than a guy throwing a helmet into an empty field (and not even being the one to instigate the whole thing). The other reason that AJ Gass is going to arbitration (obviously because his coaches and management want him to - he wouldn't be doing it if they didn't want him to) is because the Eskimos are SERIOUSLY hurting for injuries - 22 guys received treatment after the last game!!! The Eskimos have a TON of injuries, esp on defense, and they desperately need Gass in there. So, if the SYSTEM allows for the case to go to arbitraiton and that's what the team and coache's want him to, then so be it! To compare it to a judge's sentence for a criminal is absolutely ABSURD. If taht was the case, then AJ Gass wouldn't have been the only one suspended, a couple Calgary Stampeders and a handful of other player sin the league would've been suspended by now too. If you want to compare it to the "real world" then you better wait until the league has fair and consistent officiating and policies on suspensions and fines, otherwise, there is nothing about this case that REMOTELY reflects the "real world". The fact that AJ Gass is supsended for what he did and others who committed similar or worse acts didn't get suspended means that the only JOKE in whole thing is the people who make those decisions, NOT the process itself. Again, get your facts straight and educate yourself before making such stupid comments. AJ Gass is an excellent linebacker who has battled back from more injuries than most players could imagine - he is an oustanding member of the community and well-loved by his teammates and even well-respected by his opponents (read Jason Clermont's article that compliments Gass). So give him a break!_________________________________________________________Dear Concerned Reader,

Let me assure you that the Rider Prophet is very educated on the "facts" you reference. You are correct, Bobby Singh is appealing the decision to suspend him in 2005. What you conveniently left out was the fact that Singh served the suspension. You are also correct that the last helmet throwing incident was Dave Dickenson and he was not suspended. What you forgot to mention is that Dickenson threw his own helmet as opposed to one he ripped off an opposing player.

Now that we have clarified a few of your facts let me get to this gem of a quote from you:"The other reason that AJ Gass is going to arbitration (obviously because his coaches and management want him to - he wouldn't be doing it if they didn't want him to) is because the Eskimos are SERIOUSLY hurting for injuries - 22 guys received treatment after the last game!!!"

So in other words, you're saying that if it weren't for the injury situation,AJ Gass would likely not appeal the suspension and end up sitting out the Rider game?... no, that doesn't sound like picking and choosing when he serves his suspension at all!

But you know what, your little rant reminded me that AJ is indeed a good guy and so in the spirit of fairness I decided to review the footage of the incident. Turns out I had the situation all wrong. Here's what really happened:

During the last play, Gass noticed that Comiskey's helmet was defective, and as such was a danger to both himself and others players. AJ, being the good guy that he is, was merely trying to remove the dangerous piece of equipment and acquire a new one for Comiskey from the Calgary bench - Gass was as shocked as anyone when a new helmet was not thrown back! I hope this clears things up regarding AJ Gass.

Thursday, August 16, 2007

Good Day Rider Fans. This is your friendly neighbourhood Rider Prophet gearing up for a home game against the 3-3-1 Eskimos.

I'd like to start off by congratulating Reggie Hunt on being named Defensive Player of the Week for his performance against the Argos. Amazingly enough Reggie was the first member of the CFL's top ranked defense to win the award this season. I think that's a sign of just how well the Dawgs are playing as a team. When asked to comment on how he managed such an impressive performance, Hunt said "I just never thought we'd get to line up for an actual game against our scout team offense!"

Now on to this week's game... Edmonton comes into this game more banged up than a cougar at JDs. Many starters won't make it onto the field in Regina including Tucker, Ebell, Comiskey, Morgan, and Alston. You really have to feel for Ricky Ray. Imagine his disappointment when he goes into the huddle only to find his already bad O-line missing its best 2 members, his go-to receiver is KamauIncompleterson, and his RB changes more often than a weather forecast on the prairies. You know he just shakes his head and curses Maciocia under his breath.

One Eskimo that will not be sitting the game out is AJGass. He managed to delay his suspension yet again by calling in an independent arbitrator. The whole situation is ridiculous if you ask me. Two weeks ago, Gass was suspended by the league but he continues to play football. The way that the CFL's discipline policy is currently set up basically means that if you get suspended you have to sit out 1 of the next 3 games but it's left up to you to decide which one. That's like a court judge telling a burglar "I'm sentencing you to 2 years in jail, but you can serve those 2 years anytime over the next 10 years. I'll leave it up to you to figure out what works best for you." Ridiculous!

Sources say that after the arbitrator upholds the suspension, Gass and the Eskimos plan to delay things even more by launching a Human Rights complaint to the Supreme Court of Canada. Word is their goal is to have AJ serve the suspension during the West Semi-Final since the rest of Eskimos will sitting that one out as well.

While I don't expect another blow-out like we saw last time the Eskimos came to town, I do expect the Green and White to chalk up another win on Saturday. Given how many starters they are missing (and the fact that their starters weren't that good to begin with), our defense should be all over them like Michael Vick on a plea bargain (side note - apparently once Vick found out that our defense had adopted the nickname DAWGS, he had an irresistible urge to wager on our game). And besides if Omar Morgan couldn't cover Matt Dominguez, how is Morgan's back-up going to?

Well that’s it for now. If you have any questions or comments please feel free to email the Rider Prophet. Your feedback is always welcome… unless of course its negative feedback in which case it was probably intended for Rob Vanstone and should be directed accordingly.

Monday, August 13, 2007

The Riders beat the Argonauts 24-13 to extend their winning streak to 3 games. More importantly, the win, coupled with a BC loss, moves us into a tie for first place. That's gotta be tough for Rider fans to say. Given our history, saying "Riders" and "first place" in the same sentence is more awkward than having sex with a rhinoceros who doesn't love you anymore. I have to admit though, I'm really enjoying it... saying Riders in first place that is.

The victory wasn't the blowout many were predicting but let's not forget that Toronto has the 2nd best defense in the league. For the record though, the only reason that Toronto is tied with us for the lead in sacks is because they played the Montreal Alouettes twice. I'm pretty sure a D-line consisting of Nate Davis, Norm Fong, Gary Coleman and a cardboard cut-out of Chuck Norris could average 5 sacks a game against Montreal.

Heading into this game there were a number of key match-ups being watched: Arland Bruce vs. the Riders secondary and Fred Perry vs. the Toronto O-line to name two. The match-up that was the highlight for me though was former Special Teams Player of the Year BrashirLevingston vs. banged-up O-lineman Wayne Smith. In one corner you had a close to 300 lbs man with a bad back 47 yards downfield and in the other corner you had one of the best kick-returners in the league with the ball being kicked pretty much right at him. That was simply amazing effort on Smith's part.

By the way, the last time we started 5-2 was 2003 (not the 70s as some people think). Interesting fact: That season we finished 11-7... coincidentally that was what I predicted our record to be this year. Hmm...

Other news from around the league:

Montreal seems to be getting back on track after downing Calgary for their 3rd win in a row. A big reason for Montreal's recent success has been the play of defensive back Chip Cox. After the game, a few Calgary receivers commented on how hard it is to concentrate on making the catch when they constantly have Cox in their face. Just wait until Davis Sanchez gets back from injury and receivers have to deal with dirty Sanchez and Cox in their face. Only in Quebec!

Many feel that the reason for many of Calgary's current offensive woes is the lack of touches being given to standout tailback Joffrey Reynolds. Upon reviewing the game film after the loss to Montreal, Tom Higgins was quite distraught to find that Burke Dales was on the field to punt no less than 11 times. To his credit, Higgins realized that having a punter touch the ball almost three times as often as Reynolds was no way to win football games, so he did what any rational football man would do to correct this anomaly and decided to sit Dales in favour of Duncan O'Mahony.

After watching Saturday's game against Edmonton, it's obvious that Hamilton rookie receiver Chris Bauman has really learned a lot from the veteran receivers on the team. In particular, Jason French seems to have really rubbed off on Bauman.

Well that's the way I saw things this week.

And remember: Accept no imitation. There is only one true Prophet in Riderville. Anyone else trying to pass themselves off as a "prophet" is nothing more than a hack.

Thursday, August 9, 2007

This week the Riders travel to Toronto for a Friday night showdown with the 2-4 Argonauts. There will be a couple familiar faces in this game as the Argonauts, much like the Lions, have lost their top 2 QBs to injury. This means that Ian “Rocky” Butler will get the start. Last week Rocky had a performance befitting of his name, going 8 for 20 and tossing up 4 INTs! His QB efficiency rating currently sits at 3.8. To put this in perspective, Calgary WR Jermaine Copeland currently has 2.1 rating after going 0 for 1 in the last game, meaning that Butler is only a slightly better QB.

This shows that Butler is getting the start not based on merit but because he is Toronto’s only healthy QB not named McMahon (which really doesn’t say that much for McMahon).

Joining Butler on offense this week will be fellow Rider cast-off Dominique Dorsey. After Dorsey was named Special Teams Player of the week and tied a CFL record, one wonders if we missed the boat by shipping him off and should be worried come Friday. I for one am not concerned though. Remember that Dorsey won that same award with us in Week 1 and 19 and 20 last year but did absolutely nothing in between; he even got benched for a while. So I will not worry too much about Dorsey... at least until the Argos roll into Regina in November.

As for the game itself, the Riders should once again be able to take advantage of a team plagued by injuries. If Montreal’s defense was able to get 4 INTs from Butler (which matched the amount they had in the previous 5 games) our secondary must be licking their lips. Also if BC (who rarely allows any back to get 100 rushing yards) couldn’t stop Wes Cates how does Toronto expect to slow him down? As long as Joseph avoids throwing up ducks to the Argo secondary (which at this point is their only real strength), we should walk out of Rogers Centre with 2 points.

The only thing that really concerns me heading into this week’s game is our kicking game. For some reason, the once reliable Luca Congi has only hit 72% of his kicks so far. The odd thing is he seems to hit everything from 30 yards and farther but can’t make anything inside 30. These symptoms indicate that he appears to have come down with a case of Reverse Lui Passaglia-itis. This is a rare condition so here’s hoping Austin and the training staff can figure out how to cure it and soon.

Hopefully TSN and CBC's commentary is better this week. With gems last week like: “Dorsey runs back a missed FG for a TD in his first CFL game” I don’t see how it can get worse. But I’m sure the commentators will find a way though, they always do.

That’s it for now. Don’t forget to check my guest blogging at Mysask.com

Monday, August 6, 2007

Rider Prophet here with all the news that is news across the Rider Nation.

The Riders avenged a loss for the second time in as many weeks. This time it was the Limping Lions who were the victims. Many will downplay this win by saying “BC was missing a bunch of key players”. But hey, what looks worse - beating a hurt team or loosing to a hurt team?

Regardless of who they were playing, it was a great all-around effort from the guys in green on Thursday night. BC’s patchwork defensive backfield was clearly no match for the Riders receivers, and the best part was having a coach that was willing to take advantage of this - how many times did you ever see Danny Barrett go right after a clearly injured player? And while the big names such as Dominguez and Cates had a great game in BC, my game ball goes to Gene Makowsky… Brent who?

The defense was also solid against the Lions, holding Geroy Simon and Jason Clermont to just 50 yards . I think it’s safe to say that the Riders days of making third string quarterbacks look like Doug Flutie in his prime are behind them - bring on Rocky Butler!

Looks like the QB crisis in BC has finally gotten to Wally Buono. Not only did he refuse to use one of the CFL’s best RB’s despite starting an inexperienced QB, he also seriously considered playing Buck Pierce who has an injured wrist, hurt ribs and turf toe currently supported by a steel plate in his shoe. You can hardly blame Wally though, going from having a 1-2 punch of Dickenson and Pierce to a world where Spergeon Wynn and Nealon Greene are worth serious consideration would be enough to push even the most stable person over the edge.

5 Ways You Can Tell Bellefeuille Is Running Your Offense:5 - 2 words: shotgun draw4 - You consistently complete 7 yard hooks on 2nd and 103 - Elijah Thurmon is your go to guy2 - You Have a 4 time 5000 yard passer and the best play you can design forhim is to run in circles until he is sacked1 - The only way Ben Cahoon can get on the scoreboard is by kicking a field goal

Speaking of kicking, I can’t remember a year where kicking was this bad. Pretty much every kicker has missed multiple FGs. As it stands right now, 84% is by far the best kicking percentage in the CFL (ranging all the way down to 53%) which is pretty sad.

Montreal’s success using a WR and QB for kicking has inspired other teams to experiment as well. In Hamilton, Mr Everything Corey Holmes will give it a shot, Edmonton is giving Patrick Kabongo some reps and Calgary will be replacing DiAngeles with their horse (unfortunately given that the horse is Arabian they will have do some roster shuffling to maintain their non-import ratio).

Well that's about it for now. Check back later for my thoughts on the upcoming Argo game.

Wednesday, August 1, 2007

Tomorrow night the Riders will be in Vancouver to play the Lions. They will be looking to avenge their loss to BC as they did with their loss to the Eskimos. This game will see 2 of the best defenses in the league squaring off.

For BC, injuries will play a big role in this game, They are already down 2 QBs, and as many as 4 starting defenders. This is not a good sign for BC. Normally they walk out of a game against us with a myriad of injuries. Now they are walking in with a bunch. They are so strapped for QB’s they had to go out and sign a back-up from AFL2 (the league for people not good enough for the Arena League).

Given our history of injuring Lion players, you know that Wally seriously considered forfeiting this game. From a long term perspective it may just be easier for them to concede the 2 points and walk away with no more injuries. Just look at what we’ve done over the past couple seasons:

Of course 3 weeks ago, Fred Perry knocked Dickenson senseless.

In 2005 we knocked out both Dickenson and Printers in the same game.

Last year we knocked out Jason Clermont (6 weeks) and Tony Simmons (season) both within the first 2 weeks of the season. For the record, I'm pretty sure Simmons only missed two weeks because of the actual injury and spent the rest of his time on the shelf trying to recover from the bruised ego he sustained as a result of being injured by a kicker.

And who could forget Jackie Mitchell, who hit Dave Dickenson so hard last year that it ended Antonio Warren's career.

Nate Davis stopped by Mosaic Stadium this week for a visit. I was listening to Sportsline that night and someone phoned in to talk about that and actually asked if there was a chance we would bring him back. They politely replied that Nate is thinking about retiring. What they really wanted to say is: Are you kidding me? Yeah there’s good coaching, let’s replace a member of our top rated defense with a guy that has already been cut by 2 teams, one of which was us! What do you think this is? Toronto?!

Speaking of Toronto, former Rider QB Rocky Butler has made it to number 2 on their depth chart. Given that Toronto will be playing Montreal this week, I’m thinking that Toronto will rely on Rocky more for his ability to predict every play Bellefeuille will throw at the defense than his ability to lead the Toronto offense. Then again if all Pinball wanted was someone who could scout the Bellefeuille offense I’m sure he could have convinced any Rider fan to do it for a case of Pilsner (shotgun draw, 5-yard out to Thurmon, punt and repeat).

Well that’s it for now, unfortunately this week I will be forced to watch the game in regular D as opposed to HD, stupid TSN. I guess I will just have to settle for watching a somewhat blurry Fred Perry level Jarius Jackson.

Sources say Buono has already prepared the envelope he will use to send the game film to the league office. Whether this is because he wants the officials to admire Fred Perry's clean, text book tackling methods is still uncertain.